As business moves forward so does advertising. Before you could send out newsletters or email to talk to customers. Now it's all about social media. Businesses are actually engaging with customers. Talking to them and responding with them by social media. This can be confusing or even exciting at times.  But there's no escaping it. With facebook at more than 400 million users and keeps going higher, social media is a must have. Businesses have to go where the customers are. Here are a few do and don't when it comes to social media:

Don't spam your customers. They don't appreciate it and facebook will more than likely kick you off if enough customers complain. Once your lose your credibility, it will take a long time to gain it back, if ever. Hyper linking on your blog makes common sense.

Don't steal links, or new items from other sources and passing them off as your own. Twitter lets you re-tweet or use the RT function to pass on information that you would like to. This helps you to engage with the social media world.

Don't take your competitor’s content or online offerings and copy it. Many people do it, but it's not right. Be creative and produce your own products and services.

Don't sell anything, social media is for engagement! You attract and just talk to people. After you get an audience, they will  promote your business on your behalf. Your audience are there because they value your content. Your more than likely lose your audience if you try to sell to them. 

Don't die after setting up a social media space. When you set up an account either a Facebook fan page or a Twitter feed don't just sit there. Make sure you add new content regularly to keep your audience focused and interested.

Don't be careless on what you post. What ever you put out there is forever. It can be considered as an attack or negative comment in your business. Just add value when you post and add to the flow of the conversation.

Do remember to always be professional at all times. Many social media network tends to be informal but your content reflects your business. Make sure you give your audience what they need and want.

Do remember you are here for your audience, without them  you are wasting your budget and time. You need the followers, the readers, and fans of your social media network, so make your contents interesting. Cover what your audience’s requirements, needs and wants are. It is all about them after all.

Don't think social media is only from Monday to Friday. It's not. Social media is always on, seven days a week. But not to worry you can always pre-schedule posts, tweets and social media content using tools.

Finally  Do have fun with your social media networks. Get involved in conversations and ask other businesses questions. Get your business name out there.


James Hickey
Master Business Consultant
http://www.SDCCPRO.com
http://www.sd-entrepreneur.com
James Hickey is a top leader in the Internet Marketing industry.  He provides his clients and students with a proven Internet Marketing system for retail, self employed individuals and home-based businesses.  He is skilled in all aspects of Internet Marketing including Video/Article Marketing, Blogging, Google PPC, E-mail Campaigns, Lead Generation and Social Media Marketing, dominating Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and much more.

Should I Advertise On The Internet?


Internet marketing is basically the same as advertising a business off line. You still need to know how to market and how to connect with people.Internet marketing is becoming so popular because you have leverage of your time and the content that you post continuously get traffic to your business web page or site.

There are two different ways you can go about internet marketing. The first way is to do free marketing online. Free marketing is doing content marketing and blogging. This will gain you exposure and can gain traffic to your website. The second way is to do paid marketing.  Paid marketing you can do things like pay per click advertising where you run sponsored ads on the sidebar of the search results on search engines. This lets you targeted traffic from the people that click on your ads.

There are different ways to promote your business online. One way is using search engines. Understanding how to use search engine and make it people friendly is an important part. You want people to enjoy being on your site. This can gain you more site traffic. Another way to promote your business is to use social networks like Facebook and Twitter. I tend to favorite this way. You can market a lot of different ways on these sites. Take you time to learn your way around these sites. You just want to keep in mind to set yourself up that you stand out from other marketers.



James Hickey
Master Business Consultant
http://www.SDCCPRO.com
http://www.sd-entrepreneur.com
James Hickey is a top leader in the Internet Marketing industry.  He provides his clients and students with a proven Internet Marketing system for retail, self employed individuals and home-based businesses.  He is skilled in all aspects of Internet Marketing including Video/Article Marketing,Blogging, Google PPC, E-mail Campaigns, Lead Generation and Social Media Marketing, dominating Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and much more.